Culture Watch: Social Media Afterlife

Culture Watch: Social Media Afterlife is a simple thought reflection about the role social media will play in a virtual afterlife.

Facebook recently just changed its policy so there can now be a Facebook of the Dead – a policy change which would allow people who die to have their post live one forever. LifeStory.com will use your Facebook posts to make your profile and posts available as a story for others to memorialize after your death.

That at not the weirdest idea though. One site, Eterni.me, (as described in this report) will create a virtual avatar and by using artificial intelligence will allow you to chat with someone even after they have died.

There have been attempts in the past to preserve physical bodies. We have used mummification, cryogenic freezing and other means of preserving the body. In this case, we are preserving the thoughts and memories of someone for others to view at will. The soul may be gone – the essence of the physical person will be taken away. However, with this type of technology, a person may never leave this Earth theoretically.

Our souls may go to Heaven or Hell. Yet, our digital lives will remain here in a purgatory state of online remembrance. In this way, our lives can keep on living virtually forever.